The Youth Justice Reinvestment Pathfinder Initiative is an innovative approach to reducing levels of youth custody.

Led by the YJB and Ministry of Justice, the two-year project allows consortia of local authorities, or single local authorities of sufficient size, to act as ‘pathfinders’ to determine and develop ways to reduce offending and reoffending.

The initiative allows the Ministry of Justice to allocate funds from the central custody budget to be invested upfront by the local authorities to divert young people from custody.

The initiative contributes to the development of ‘payment by results’ which is a key strand of the government’s policy agenda.

The pathfinder is entirely voluntary and participation will be based on criteria set by the YJB and Ministry of Justice. The criteria include sufficient volumes of young people in custody and also a robust business case for delivery of anticipated reduction in numbers. The model of working will not be prescriptive but will allow local authorities to set their own method of delivering the targets they agree with the YJB and Ministry of Justice.

Read more about the Reinvestment Pathfinder here or visit the YJB website